Blagojevich Administration’s Operation Teen Safe Driving Program

           Governor Rod R. Blagojevich announced that students from four winning schools in the state’s Operation Teen Safe Driving program are taking part today in Chicago in a safe-driving clinic put on by Ford, one of the sponsors of the program. Over the next eight days, students from 28 high schools around the state will receive behind-the-wheel instruction at driving skills training events in Chicago, Peoria and the Metro East area as part of Ford’s Driving Skills for Life (DSFL) teen safe driving program that is designed to reduce teen auto fatalities.
           The safe-driving clinics are getting underway just days after officials announced provisional data shows that teen traffic fatalities are down sharply in Illinois in 2008. From January 1st through May 1st, 24 teens (ages 16-19) lost their lives on Illinois roadways. During the same time period last year, there were 67 deaths.
Operation Teen Safe Driving is a partnership spearheaded by Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Traffic Safety and includes Secretary of State Jesse White, the Illinois State Police, the Illinois State Board of Education, and the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, the Governors Highway Safety Association, Ford Motor Company Fund and The Allstate Foundation.